Category: RKBA

If you ventured to downtown Coeur d’Alene, Idaho last night you would think you had entered a Militia family reunion. No one has an accurate count of how many heavily armed citizens came out to support peaceful protestors and protect local businesses and citizens against shipped in ANTIFA members but it was certainly HUNDREDS, perhaps over a THOUSAND.

“We just drove downtown Coeur d’Alene. It is packed with armed citizens. I’ve never seen so many AR-15s in my life. There’s at least a thousand armed citizens walking on the sidewalks and the streets are packed with cars and trucks with guys in the back with AR-15 and American flags everywhere. We saw two protesters wearing their little black clothing and black masks and sitting on a step quietly with their little poster board sign saying “our system sucks!” Guess why they’re being so polite.”~Keith Gibson, Coeur d’Alene resident.

Word got out that ANTIFA was going to ship in rioters to mingle with peaceful protestors in our quiet little town…and indeed they did as several white Mercedes vans were seen with dozens of people that didn’t belong in our community. It was also made known that they were planning to use the local WINCO store as their staging ground. After learning this, a well organized local group of concerned citizens set up a post in the parking lot to ensure that these unwelcomed invaders clearly understood that the citizens of Coeur d’Alene would have ZERO tolerance for any type of violence or destructive behavior in our town.

Concerned Citizen removing crowbar from ANTIFA member

Don’t tell me you’re peaceful and bring a crowbar to a protest…. not in our town… Was happy to remove it from their possession as we escorted him to his vehicle [ and just to clarify the guy in the beard handed me the crow bar when I requested it, His name is Sam and he did get that guy to leave ] Brett Surplus, Coeur d’Alene resident

The downtown area of Coeur d’Alene, Id was wall to wall with armed citizens, who protected the city for the entire night. Many had posts directly in front of local businesses while others walked the sidewalks making their powerful presence known…………

As concerns over self-defense became more pronounced in 2020, initially during the cornonavirus hysteria and then during the current spate of protests and riots, two million Americans became first-time gun owners.

Earlier this week Breitbart News reported that May 2020 shattered the record for the number of National Instant Criminal Background System (NICS) checks performed in a given May. FBI numbers show 3,091,455 NICS checks were conducted in May 2020, easily surpassing the previous record of 2,349,309 checks set in May 2019 and dominating the numbers from any other May since records began to be kept in May 1999.

Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting reported that May 2020 gun sales were up 80 percent over sales in May 2019, and they explained the vast majority of the guns sold were handguns. This suggests self-defense is of paramount concern for gun buyers.

Breitbart News reported March and April 2020 both set records for NICS background checks as well.

The number of checks conducted in March 2020 was so high it was not only a record for March but a record for any single month, period. The most checks for any month since the NICS system was adopted in 1998.

Auto Defensas Para Mi!™ ( I oughta get some T-Shirts printed up with that)
Families in Florida guard their neighborhood, some with the dreaded AR-15 *gasp* Horrors! Zut Alors!, and the milquetoast press have the vapors.

Cooke’s opinion piece is excellent and I recommend you go and read the rest for yourself.

His overall point is also excellent and one we need to see discussed more openly. After all, if the police are such a problem–and I’ll agree that there are serious problems with policing in this country–then why would you entrust them with all the power that comes from being the only ones who can lawfully have a firearm?

The two positions simply don’t make any sense. Either police are lawless and can’t be trusted with their current level of authority or they’re trustworthy souls to a man and there’s no reason to doubt they’ll rush to your rescue in your hour of need. There’s just no way the two can co-exist.

Even claims of nuance fall flat on their face in this case. No, not all police are bad, but if enough are that we need to revamp or, in some cases, even abolish the police, then there’s simply no way we can also believe that these same police should be the only ones trusted with firearms.

Of course, it’s not like this narrative will die. Consistency isn’t exactly a hallmark of the anti-gunners. They’re quite content to vilify the police while simultaneously lionizing them as our personal champions.

The thing is, a lot of other people will see the discrepancy and question the competing narratives. Not all will fall on the pro-gun side, but it should make for some interesting discussions.

The same politicians who ordered police to stand down and released prison inmates are the same people who want to ban guns. These politicians prevent citizens from protecting themselves, at a time when police protection cannot be depended on.

For three days, police in Minneapolis and St. Paul were ordered to stand down as rioters destroyed their cities. Sadly, so many of the victims of this violence have been blacks. Black store owners have lost their businesses. In these heavily black areas, blacks will lose their jobs. Black shoppers worry they “have nowhere to go now.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said it’d be “ridiculous” to break up demonstrators who violate crowd-size rules for the coronavirus. The president of the NAACP is asking police nationwide to stand down to preserve the peace.

In Minnesota, you face a $25,000 fine if you open your business during the current COVID-19 lockdown, but criminals effectively have immunity. The few who were arrested for violent acts in Minneapolis were quickly bailed out of jail with financial help from Joe Biden’s presidential campaign staffers.

As of Sunday morning, more than 255 businesses had been destroyed in the Twin Cities. The looting was extensive. Many large companies have reported that they are “temporarily or indefinitely closed.” Officers even abandoned their own police station, which was then set on fire by protesters.

Across the country, police have had orders to stand down.

“Tonight, I watched Seattle burn. Seattle is dying, by fire, looting, weakness of the political leadership,” wrote Seattle KVI radio talk-show host Kirby Wilbur. “We watched on TV as our law enforcement stood by while vandalism, looting, assaults, pure chaos reigned in the streets of our downtown business district.”

But the violence in Minneapolis would have been much worse if people hadn’t been able to defend themselves and their businesses with guns. As The Wall Street Journal reported, “African-American owners of GM Tobacco told me they were armed and ready to protect their business — and that they stand in solidarity with those who seek justice for [George] Floyd.” Visible from the front of the store was Minneapolis’ Third Police Precinct, which rioters set on fire.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. People may remember the Korean store owners who successfully used semi-automatic rifles to protect their businesses during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

One searches in vain for Democratic politicians who have reprimanded the rioters. On Saturday, after several nights of riots, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat, egged on demonstrators by calling for a continuation of the “righteous protests” and necessary routing out of the “racism” that she said is endemic in Minnesota.

Twitter didn’t seem to mind incitement to violence by liberals such as Colin Kaepernick. He tweeted that “revolting is the only logical reaction. … We have the right to fight back!” Others on Twitter are calling for “a violent rebellion against an entire system.”

Democrats in Minnesota have been forceful advocates for gun control. Mr. Walz and Mrs. Smith have been strongly endorsed by Michael Bloomberg’s gun-control organization, Moms Demand Action. They have supported banning some semi-automatic guns based solely on superficial appearance. They also support limits on magazine sizes.

Especially in a riot, semi-automatic firearms that reload automatically are much more useful for self-defense than are single-shot weapons. Hopefully, the presence of a gun by itself will deter an attack, but if you have to open fire it will be a big help to not have to constantly manually reload.

My research shows that police are the single most important factor in deterring violent crime. But the riots have shown yet again that politicians frequently won’t let the police do their jobs when they are most needed.

The riots have shown several things that liberal politicians don’t seem to understand. The police themselves know that they normally arrive on the scene after the crime has occurred, and that having a gun is by far the safest course of action when you are confronted by a criminal. It is also the most vulnerable in our society — namely blacks who live in high-crime cities — who benefit the most from having the option to be able to defend themselves.

The Bedford County (VA) Board of Supervisors approved a resolution at its Tuesday, May 26, meeting recognizing a militia within Bedford County, pursuant to the Second Amendment.

When questioned who was over the Bedford County militia, Chairmen John Sharp of District 4 said that the board was not over it. He also said that it’s a formal recognition that they have a right to exist.

“Unless there is some constitutional reason why they can’t own a firearm, I don’t have an issue with it,” said Sharp.

He said it’s like a move on a chessboard, and that they are playing chess with Richmond right now.

TALLAHASSEE — A proposal to ban assault weapons in Florida was rejected by the state Supreme Court on Thursday, with a majority of justices ruling that the proposal was misleading.

The proposal, spun out of the 2018 Parkland massacre, would have changed Florida’s Constitution to make it illegal for people to buy assault weapons or transfer those weapons to others.

In finding the proposal was misleading, a majority of justices took a narrow approach, honing in on just a few words at the end of the proposed ballot summary.

The ballot measure summary, which is limited to 75 words, states that the proposal “[e]xempts and requires registration of assault weapons lawfully possessed prior to this provision’s effective date.”

To the organizers, this wording meant that people currently owning assault weapons would be able to keep them if they registered the weapons. In the full text of the proposal, it clarifies that people can’t transfer those weapons to anyone.

The justices read the summary differently. To the 4-1 majority, the summary exempts the weapon itself. So, in theory, the weapon, if it’s registered, could be transferred to someone else.

But since their interpretation of the summary conflicts with the full text of the amendment, the measure itself is misleading, they said.

“Contrary to the ballot summary, the Initiative’s text exempts only ‘the person’s,’ meaning the current owner’s, possession of that assault weapon,” justices wrote.

Lawyers for Attorney General Ashley Moody and the National Rifle Association had asked the Supreme Court to strike down the amendment. Moody called it “deceitful and misleading” last year because she said it could ban all sorts of weapons not typically considered assault rifles. Justices did not address that issue in their opinion.

The measure’s wording said the proposed amendment would have banned all “assault rifles,” which it defined as “semiautomatic rifles and shotguns capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition at once, either in fixed or detachable magazine, or any other ammunition-feeding device.” It did not apply to handguns.

‘1992 Roof Koreans’ segue into ‘2020 Roof Mexicans’
And we now come to the times when Americans have their own version of ‘Auto Defensas‘, which, when you get right down to it, isn’t such a bad idea anyway.

Cesia Baires knocks on the three apartment doors above her restaurant and a neighboring taqueria just before curfew.

A woman opens the door. Her two young children are inside.

“Remember,” she says to them in Spanish. “Same thing as yesterday. I’m going to come check on you. If there’s anything you guys need, give us a call right away.”

Meanwhile, a few men climb through the window and on to the roof to set up semi-automatic weapons as the curfew begins in Minneapolis. It’s something Baires never thought she would have to do as a small-business owner, but then she found out these apartments were occupied.

“Material things we can replace, that’s true,” she says. “But there are families up here. These aren’t empty buildings.”

As break-ins and fires raged in the first days of mass protests over the killing of yet another black man in an encounter with police, the city seemed to descend into a security vacuum. She says the police disappeared from this neighborhood. That’s when she and others started forming patrols to include people with licensed weapons.

“I’m the one that’s checking everyone,” she says. “If you’re up here with a gun and you’re not supposed to be here and you don’t have a license to carry, then I don’t allow you to even go to the rooftop. Only people with guns are on the rooftop.”

But is this a path to vigilante justice?

“It’s not something that I would want, but we’ve seen how, for at least the first couple days, we were left alone,” she says. “There were no cops that would come around. So what are we to do? Just stand there and do nothing?”

Her group — Security Latinos De La Lake — is one of many neighborhood watch groups sprouting up across the Twin Cities and in other parts of the country as dozens of mostly peaceful protests continue every day, sometimes in the face of violence from law enforcement: tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray. The Twin Cities have largely calmed, but Baires says she wasn’t even able to get through to 911 until Monday.

When asked about the lack of police presence, a spokesman for the Minneapolis Police Department said in an email that the department is facing an “unprecedented situation.” He added that citizens who need help should call 911. The department is also aware of these neighborhood groups. In fact, the police chief and officers have met with some, and the department is not concerned as long as they’re following the law………..

The National Rifle Association and Florida officials will avoid mediation in a lawsuit challenging a 2018 state law that prevents people under age 21 from purchasing firearms, under an order issued this week by a federal judge.

The age restriction was included in a law passed in response to the Feb. 14, 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Nikolas Cruz, who was 19 at the time of the shooting, is accused of killing 14 students and three faculty members with a semi-automatic weapon at his former school.

The law raised the age from 18 to 21 to purchase “long guns,” such as rifles and shotguns. Federal law already banned licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to people under 21, and the state law broadened that to also prevent private sales of handguns to people under 21, according to court documents.

The NRA challenged the law, alleging that the age restriction is an unconstitutional violation of people’s Second Amendment rights to “purchase firearms to defend themselves, their families, and their homes.”

Lawyers for Attorney General Ashley Moody argue that the law doesn’t violate the Second Amendment because, while people between 18 and 21 cannot purchase guns, they may still “keep and use” firearms “for any lawful purpose.”

Lawyers for Moody and the NRA filed a joint motion last week asking U.S. District Judge Mark Walker to allow them to sidestep court-ordered mediation, saying the process “would be fruitless.” The two sides’ positions “are not reconcilable, and no middle ground exists between them,” lawyers wrote in a joint motion “to abrogate” the mediation requirement.

“Accordingly, the issues involved in this case are not amenable to mediation. Mediation would not be a productive exercise, nor would it be a worthwhile use of the parties’, or the court’s, resources,” the lawyers wrote.

In Monday’s order granting the request, Walker wrote “this court finds good cause has been shown why the mediation requirement should be waived.”

A friend of mine posted about seeing this: “Where are all you gun owners now that the federal government and police are attacking citizens in the streets?? Now that the National Guard is out oppressing citizens? I thought this was the moment you’re waiting for? So why aren’t you out there fighting them with your guns? You’re nothing but a bunch of effing cowards!”

My response was the GIF of Nelson Muntz going HA HA. 😀

But I’ve seen this sentiment a lot too over the last few days, so please if you are so incredibly effing dumb that you are actually wondering why America’s gun culture aren’t commuting into the democrat cities you have banned us from in order to get into gun fights with the National Guard on your behalf, allow me to elaborate.

Hypothetical Liberal “Ally” Who Lives in the Suburbs Which Aren’t On Fire – “Hey, gun owners! Here is some civil unrest! Why won’t you come and help us?”

Snort. Eff off. 😀

“Pussies! Why not?”

Well, every single gun nut in America has spent their entire adult life being continually mocked, insulted, and belittled by the left. You’ve done nothing but paint us as the bad guys.

In Hollywood, we’re always evil, stupid, violent, malicious, redneck, racist, murderers. That’s so ingrained in the liberal religion that when “ally” Harvey Weinstein was trying to get out of being a sleazy rapist, his repentance consisted of promising to make more movies about how the NRA is bad.

In the news, everything is always our fault. If there is a mass murder, we can always count on the vultures to swoop in and blame America’s gun culture. They flog it for weeks on end, 24/7 coverage, hoping for gun control. And if the identity of the shooter doesn’t fit the narrative, it drops off the news in mere hours.

And then at the local, state, and federal level, legally speaking, the left effs us at every opportunity. You ban everything you can get away with. You ban things that literally make no sense. You ban $#!+ just out of spite.
When we fight back against gun control laws, you declare we are stupid because only the police should have guns (hey, aren’t those the guys you are protesting right now?)

“Stupid racist rednecks! We live in a civilized society! Don’t you realize the police will protect us?” until when your democrat cities are on fire, and you call 911 and the operator tells you sorry, the police can’t come to your house right now, please try not to get murdered… How is that strict gun control working out for you?

Then you did everything in your power to chase gun owners out of your sainted liberal strongholds. You passed laws. You banned everything we like. Forced all the shooting ranges to close. Forced most of the gun stores to close. And just generally let us know that our kind is not welcome there.

But now you’ve started some $#!+, YOU want US to go into democrat cities, with democrat mayors, and democrat police chiefs enforcing democrat policies which cause strife among democrats, in order to get into gun fights on your behalf?
How effing gullible do you think we are? 😀 Like holy $#!+. Damn dude!

Because we all know that literally 30 seconds after a gun nut blows away a government employee on your behalf, then all the national media coverage of the riots will instantly cease (sorta like the Corona Virus coverage did) and it’ll be back to the news breathlessly reporting about right wing extremist gun nuts, and all you useless effers would go back to whining for more dumb ass gun control.

You’ve already thrown the black community under the bus, cheering as their neighborhoods get burned and yours are safe. Seriously, white liberals are the worst “allies” in history, and your moral foundation has the consistency of Play-Doh. Your moral compass is a wind sock.

Just a little while ago, gun nuts had a massive peaceful protest in Virginia. Tens of thousands of people turned out to protest gun control proposals from a democrat with a penchant for wearing black face (he still considers himself an “ally” though!) They didn’t break any windows. They didn’t kill any puppies. They didn’t burn any horses. They didn’t flip any police cars or murder any security guards. They were downright boring. They were polite, and even cleaned up their litter.

Except then you called them domestic terrorists, and were super sad that they didn’t get massacred by the government (said government you are now mad at for killing people, because again, you effers ain’t exactly consistent).

Liberal “allies” are quick to call gun nuts the bad guys, but we’re not trying to disarm people. We want everybody to be able to defend themselves. It’s a common thing to see some meme on the internet, showing a black family shooting or posing with their guns, with some caption like “bet this offends the NRA”, which is liberal projection, because in reality in my social circles everybody is like, “ good for them”. And the harshest complaints I’ve seen have been about trigger finger discipline or lack of eye protection.

My side isn’t the one that wants the state to have a monopoly on force. We know the 2nd is for everybody, regardless of skin color or where you live. You effers are the ones who keep declaring we can’t fight the government with AR-15s because they have tanks and nukes, but then you try it by throwing rocks?

Defending their lives and their property as they see fit is exactly what those who have been abandoned by the authorities are doing in droves.

‘Only the cops need guns” simply could not live forever alongside, “The cops are racist and will kill you.” And so, at long last, the two circles of the Venn Diagram have filed for an amicable divorce. In the end, the differences proved irreconcilable.

At least, they proved irreconcilable without descending into farce. I have been told more times that I can count that “if you want to own an AR-15, you should join the army or the police.” Oh, really. Why? So that I can be pulled back when the rioting starts, lest I inflame those wielding bricks and Molotov cocktails? So that I can be called a fascist, acting in the service of a dictator? So that I can be part of the problem? In light of the new fashions, these old injunctions look rather silly, don’t they? “You don’t need 15 rounds; you’re not a cop! Also, the police are corrupt from top to bottom, and should probably be abolished.”

Pick one, perhaps?

In The New Republic, Matt Ford argues that the police were a mistake per se. They have, Ford writes, “become the standing armies that the Founders feared.” As it happens, unreconstructed small-r republican that I am, I have more sympathy for this idea than many might expect. But I’m sure as hell not going to entertain it at the same time as I subordinate my unalienable right to bear arms to the personal prejudices of the bureaucracy and commentariat. Don’t call the cops! Also, wait three months for a gun permit! Again: Pick one.

In any case, the idea that the existence of police officers in some way negates the right to bear arms has always been a ridiculous one. Police are an auxiliary force that we hire to do a particular job — there to supplement, not to replace, my rights and responsibilities. Every time we debate gun control in the United States, I am informed that the Sheriff of Whatever County is opposed to liberalization. To which I always think, “So what?” My right to keep and bear arms is merely the practical expression of my underlying right to self-defense. That, as a polity, we have decided to hire certain people to take the first shot at keeping the peace is fine. But it has no bearing on my liberties.

And how could it, given that I do not live in a police station? The old saw that “when seconds count, the police are minutes away” is trotted out as often as it is because it is unquestionably true. Whether the average police department is virtuous or evil is irrelevant here. What matters is that no government has the right — and in America, mercifully, no government has the legal power — to farm out, and then to abolish, my elementary rights. It would not fly if the government hired people to speak for me and then shut down my speech; if would not fly if the government hired people to worship for me and then restricted my right to exercise my religion; and it will not fly for the government to hire a security agency and then to remove, or limit, my access to weaponry. This is a personal question, not an aggregate question: I have one life, and I am entitled to defend it in any way I see fit against those who would do me harm. If there is a single principle that has animated this realm since the time of the Emperor Justinian, it is that.

Happily, defending their lives and their property as they see fit is exactly what those who have been abandoned by the authorities are doing in droves. Like father, like son, we have seen the return of the Rooftop Koreans — supplemented, this time, by Rooftop African-Americans, Rooftop Hispanics, Rooftop Pakistanis, and the rest. The NAACP is helping to organize armed patrols of minority-owned business. Gun sales are up by a staggering 80 percent over this time last year. During the coronavirus lockdown, there was a public debate over whether gun stores should be deemed “essential.” During this outbreak of rioting, such an inquiry seems quaint. Now, as ever, there is no greater prophylactic against a criminal on the rampage than a loaded firearm in the hands of a free man.

Underlying most of the arguments that are leveled by the gun-control movement is the assumption that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is historically contingent: upon a time, upon a people, upon a place. They are wrong. The Second Amendment is as relevant today as it was during the totalitarian 20th century; as it was when Ida B. Wells was observing that “the only case where [a] proposed lynching did not occur, was where the men armed themselves”; as it was in the revolutionary era; as it was when all roads led to Rome. There will be no age in which it becomes unnecessary, nor any transmutation of the human character that renders it moot. This is History. Right now. And Samuel Colt ain’t abandoning anyone.

We‘ve had the gun control narrative screamed at us like crazy for over a decade. Americans cannot be trusted with firearms & would likely “shoot first” in all kinds of situations, especially those they perceive as threatening. 1/

If ever there was a time such irresponsible, gun wielding Americans would go nuts, it would be now. And yet…that’s not the case. Thousands have taken to their businesses & streets armed to deter, but few have needed to or been willing to engage their firearms. 3/

What is going on? If it was a gun problem & reckless American problem, would we not have bodies piling up? We don’t, because what many of has said repeatedly is true. Use of lethal force is the LAST resort & even in the face of chaos & destruction, we are hesitant to use it. 4/

If the media & Dem narrative about guns & their owners were true, it would be a fucking bloodbath. Yes, people are deterring looters with armed defenders. Yes, the suburbs are doing the same. But no one is willy nilly shooting people, even bad actors. 5/

Even all those Bubba MAGAs who are “muh rebel flag, muh gun” wielding racists, who we were told would are dangerous af & would shoot POC without provocation, are not rounding up their boys to do…anything. 6/

If a lot of this is truly white supremacist infiltration & they intend to fuel the mayhem, why would they not be loading trucks armed with their AR-15s to go intimidate & impose their will? To gun down abusers & get their own kind of justice? 7/

All of this completely betrays the anti-gun argument that citizens cannot be trusted with foreakrs. It’s amazing how so many blue checks & others, once shitstorms came to their neighborhoods, are admitting that they are now looking into armed self defense. 8/

“Just call 911.” Welp, they are overwhelmed & telling people to fend for themselves given the current strife. “Just call the police.” The same police you have deemed racist & inadequate? “Only police & military should be armed.” How is that working out, y’all? 9/

No. You are the only one that is responsible for and can be held accountable to your family, friends, & property. Do what you must. I hope you are armed. fin/

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — As protesters in Scottsdale moved down 5th Avenue, local stores had windows broken and benches along the road were damaged.

The vandalism continued down the road, until protesters came to a local jewelry store. There, the protesters found a handful of people inside the store, armed with rifles and handguns.

The people were inside the store with guns because they had heard what happened to the Apple store at Scottsdale Fashion Square and wanted to protect their private property, the store owner’s son said.

“We weren’t here to hurt anybody. We weren’t here to harm anybody,” the store owner’s son, who did not wish to be identified by name, said. “After seeing exactly what happened to the Apple store, this isn’t protesting, this isn’t rioting, this is crime.”

The protesters stopped and proceeded to hold a bit of a protest, kneeling and raising their arms in front of the store.

Four pro-gun bills have been passed by the Louisiana Legislature and will now be sent to the desk of Governor John Bel Edwards for his signature.

House Bill 746, sponsored by Rep. Ray Garofalo, allows those who lawfully possess a firearm to carry concealed for self-defense during a mandatory evacuation under a declared state of emergency or disaster.

House Bill 781, sponsored by Rep. Blake Miguez, establishes that firearms and ammunition manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, suppliers, and retailers are “Essential Businesses” that shall not be prohibited from conducting business during a declared disaster or emergency. HB 781 further prevents law-abiding gun owners’ rights from being infringed during proclaimed curfews.

House Bill 140, sponsored by Rep. Blake Miguez, prevents local authorities and municipalities from imposing restrictions to prohibit the possession of a firearm. Preemption legislation is designed to stop municipalities from creating a patchwork of different laws that turn a law-abiding citizen into a criminal for simply crossing a jurisdictional line.

House Bill 334, sponsored by Reps. Bryan Fontenot, Blake Miguez and Charles Owen, authorizes a concealed handgun permit holder to carry a concealed handgun in a church, synagogue, mosque, or other similar place of worship, with permission from church leadership.

These armed citizens showed up to provide security to a store in Minneapolis during the disturbances over the death of Gerald Floyd. (Screen snip, YouTube, The First)

Gun prohibition lobbying groups have been noticeably silent in the wake of reports from around the country that armed citizens are fighting back against rioters and looters exploiting the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, turning out to protect their neighborhoods, and business districts.

When a South Philadelphia gun shop owner fatally shot a man trying to break into his store early Tuesday morning, WCAU News reported it happened “amid heightened looting concerns.”

The fatal shooting might be a warning to a criminal element that has hijacked public demonstrations over the Floyd incident, for which four Minneapolis officers have been fired and one has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Instead of peacefully protesting, criminals and anarchists have looting and pillaging across the map, leaving large metropolitan areas in shambles, if not ashes, and now it appears some good people have had enough and they are visibly arming to fight back.

Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County, Florida stated publicly, “The people in Polk County like guns, they have guns, I encourage them to own guns… And if you try to break into their homes to steal, to set fires, I’m highly recommending they blow you back out of the house with their guns.”

In Lynchburg, Va., armed citizens have been providing volunteer security to a restaurant in their city, according to WSLS.

Out in Washington State, armed citizens have appeared to provide voluntary security to a Bonney Lake gun shop, a commercial district in downtown Snohomish and businesses in Kirkland, located northeast of Seattle. These appearances have not been designed to incite violence, but to deter people intent on committing violent acts. So far, it appears to be working. Credible threats of mob violence in Kirkland and Snohomish haven’t materialized.

Through it all, anti-gun-rights organizations have been remarkably silent. The exception came Monday from anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety, which tried to portray their gun prohibition crusade as a battle against racism.

“The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, David McAtee, and the countless other murders of Black people in the United States that don’t make headlines are beyond heartbreaking,” Everytown’s fund raising message begins.

“For generations, Black and brown communities have been dying at the hands of all forms of racism and white supremacy, and have also been the disproportionate victims of gun violence – including by the police,” the narrative continues. “The racist and senseless murders we’ve seen across the country are horrific and inexcusable, as are the President’s reckless, racist, and incendiary calls for additional violence.

“Our mission to end gun violence is linked to a crisis that is centuries older – systemic racism,” the gun control group’s message contends. “Black lives matter, and we must do everything in our power to dismantle anti-Black racism and white supremacy. We are learning from and listening to Black and brown led organizations across the country. We are supporting organizations – particularly those led by Black people and other people of color – committed to ending gun violence and the impact of racial injustice.

“In solidarity with the organizations leading the fight against racism and white supremacy,” the message declares, “we ask, if you are able, to support groups that are working locally at the intersection of racial justice and gun violence prevention…”

But not a peep about armed citizens exercising their Second Amendment rights to discourage looters and rioters; their silence, some activists suggest, is deafening.

Melissa Denny, owner at Pistol Annie’s Jewelry & Pawn in Bonney Lake, Wash., a community southeast of Tacoma, posted on Facebook that armed volunteers had appeared at her business.

Meanwhile, it appears, no similar volunteer effort has been mounted by the Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility.

As noted recently by AmmoLand News, Nicholas Murray Butler, once president of Columbia University, observed in 1931, “The vast population of this earth, and indeed nations themselves, may readily be divided into three groups. There are the few who make things happen, the many more who watch things happen, and the overwhelming majority who have no notion of what happens.”

Armed citizens are literally making things happen by preventing things from happening, while the reaction from the gun control lobby has been crickets.

Gun control activists don’t really see the point of guns, at least for the most part. Quite a few will work to curtail your ability to purchase a gun but have no qualms about owning them themselves. It’s different when they buy guns, after all, because they’re all good and pure and stuff.

However, they will often question you about why you have a gun, whether you’re carrying at the moment or whether it’s your AR-15 at home in the safe.

“Why do you think you need something like that?” they ask.

Well, because stuff like this can happen (some might find the following video disturbing):

I’ve personally seen this video, which comes from a riot in Dallas over the weekend, from a couple of different angles. This was reportedly a man who was trying to protect his business from looters, and we see how that worked out for him. Some reports claim he had some kind of a bladed weapon, like a machete, but all seem to agree that he didn’t have a firearm.

That said, it’s absolutely awful what we’re seeing all over the country right now. What happened to George Floyd was an absolute tragedy and from what I’ve seen, it never should have happened.

However, how does this help?

Unfortunately, if people don’t have the means to defend their property and, more importantly, their own lives, some predatory jackwagons are going to do what they want in a case like this. It’s important to note that rioters don’t actually care all that much about George Floyd. Oh, their outrage may have brought them out to what were supposed to be protests, but that’s not what it became about. It became about seeing how much they could take from people who had nothing to do with any of this.

Yet, let’s imagine if that man in the video had been armed with an AR-15. With a 30-round magazine, he’d have clearly been able to engage any and all of his attackers. Likely, though, he wouldn’t have needed to. Instead, the rioting turdnuggets would have seen the weapon and decided to look for an easier target.

While that sucks because it means someone else is going to be victimized, it’s also the best you can do. If every store owner had an AR-15 handy during a riot, I somehow suspect that looting would become a relic of the past.

During President Donald Trump’s nationwide address on Monday evening, he announced his intent to use all federal resources to help stop the rioting and looting that’s taking place across the country. He also mentioned that he would protect the rights of law-abiding citizens, including the right to keep and bear arms. Naturally, progressives and those who hate the Second Amendment were up in arms over the mention of the Second Amendment….

Here’s what these folks fail to understand: the Second Amendment is there to protect our freedoms, including our First Amendment rights, but it’s also there for self-defense.

TRUMP: "I am mobilizing all available federal resources, civilian and military, to stop the rioting and looting, to end the destruction and arson. And to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, including your Second Amendment rights." pic.twitter.com/CDu3eFZYp9

Oh, they understand that alright. They just don’t like the idea that people they disagree with and don’t like can tell them where to go and what to do with their brand of politics…and make it stick.

Relying on cops to protect you when they’re trying to keep rioters from looting and literally burning down cities, it’s up to you to protect yourself, your family and your property. Even when there aren’t massive riots taking place across the country, it can take cops minutes, sometimes even hours, to arrive to a person’s call for help (depending on where they live and how well-staffed their police and/or sheriff’s department is).

The gun control movement died in this weekend's riots. Its grave is always shallow, but it will take years to claw itself out. Too many people understand exactly why the 2nd Amendment is crucial now. It will take a while for them to forget again.